First Fishless Cycle..

[Tag2008]

Hi Guys,

Well.. I fel asleep last night and never did a test and ammonia top up so did it first thing today and hope I havent lost my bacteria!!!

Anyways here are my readings and one change in Nitrate the rest are the same..

====================================================

Ammonia:0 << Down in 12 hours again..

Nitrate: Between 5-10 << Down a good bit from yesterday

Nitrite: 0.50 << Same as yesterday and most of the week

PH:7.6 << Same

=====================================================

Is this still looking as excpected? I was expecting to see the Nitrite go up or down not the nitrate?

Regards as ever
Tag

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nitrate test kits are notoriously unreliable so don't be too concerned if it's doing funny things..... they do tend to do that.

nitrite can take a long time to shift, just got to stick with it, it'll be fine

 

[davefish]

Seems like it's going well .

I think in another thread you said you had soft water. I was just wondering if you've tested the KH of your water at all. It's not massively important as your pH seems to be holding up ok, but I would be interested to know what it is, if you can measure it. Cheers.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I agree, that 7.6 pH has been holding pretty well. The KH reading would indicate whether you might need to watch out for a sudden pH drop or whether it would be likely to continue to hold. pH of 7.6 should be pretty good for these bacteria to grow. Optimal pH range for a given species can be as narrow as 1 full pH number.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Tag2008]

Hi Guys,

I dont have an individual test for KH I just have it on a strip still.. its the only one I havent got on its own...

I was measuring my PH with these strips too and it gave me a realy low PH of 6.4 to 6.8 when i changed to a liquid ph test kit it was reading about 7.6

So Im not sure how accurate the test strip will be for my KH but on the strip its reading between 6 - 10 its a dull green ish colour in the strip...

Thanks again
Tag

 

[waterdrop]

I know, I've got a leftover box of those strips too, can't bring myself to throw them out as I should, they're worse than useless, they potentially mislead.

TetraTest makes a good KH kit. Tiny bottle of drops and little plastic rectangular test tube, works fine. I think API makes a combined KH/GH kit which sounds fun (I love test kits, as they all know about me here, lol.) (guess I didn't get enough of watercolors and fingerpainting...)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[davefish]

That said. Assuming the strip is ball-park correct, you are not particularly vulnerable to pH crashes with that KH. Still need to keep an eye on the pH mind, just in case.

You could test the strip.
If you add baking soda to the water the KH reading should increase. Distilling or de-ionising the water (e.g. using RO water) should give you a very low reading (this might be a bit of a hassle and not worth it unless you have access to a supply). Obviously don't do this in your tank, just test your tap water.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

That said. Assuming the strip is ball-park correct, you are not particularly vulnerable to pH crashes with that KH. Still need to keep an eye on the pH mind, just in case.

and we all know what assumption does to you and me

seriously, don't even attempt to draw any conclusions from the test strips, as WD said they can give a false sense of security, it's better to know that you don't know than it is to think you know it's OK when it's not.

 

[davefish]

seriously, don't even attempt to draw any conclusions from the test strips, as WD said they can give a false sense of security, it's better to know that you don't know than it is to think you know it's OK when it's not.

You must have had some really bad experiences with test strips!

Generally I agree, but felt obliged to tell him what that result meant even if it's not reliable, since I asked him to take it. It's up to him whether he's satisfied with that or buys a liquid test kit to confirm as it's been made pretty clear that strips aren't very reliable. I would test the strips at least, that will tell you if the strips are way off or not. Best to buy the liquid kit though.

I've found some test strips to be bad, and others to be decent. Although it has to be said generally the decent ones were pilfered from a laboratory as opposed to bought in a fish shop!

 

[Tag2008]

Thanks Guys,

I will try and get a better KH test the next time im at the shop, but I think I feel safe that with the rest of my results being the expected I will go along with what im doing and pretend I didnt do a KH test with a strip... lol

I know the strip I use also does PH and it gives me in the low range about 6.3 ish and when i use the other liquid test Its much higher and the norm for my area.. So I think the strips I have may not be the best, its a 5 in 1 kit from Tetra...

All Your comments are very appreciated...

 

[Tag2008]

Readings Today:

Ammonia :0

Nitrate : 160 < Realy dark Red in test tube well up.

Nitrite : 0.50 < Same

So a big jump in Nitrate this morning.... More ammonia in and will test again tonight around 9pm for a 12 hr check.

Tag

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thats good. jump in nitrate means the nitrite is being processed

 

[Tag2008]

Well this is 12 hours since the last dose of amonia and here is what I have...

Ammonia : 0

Nitrate: 20- 40 (Orangey redish colour) Down a fair bit from last reading.... what does that mean?

Nitrite : 0 < Big Difference very light blue in colour...

PH: stable at 7.6

Am I wrong in thinking im nearly there? If my readings are correct my tank has cycled realy eh?

If this is so how many more days do I keep this up for thats a week tommorrow since I started...

Regards as ever
Tag..

 

[Tag2008]

Before I added Ammonia this morning the readings are

Nitrate: 80-100 (DEEP redish colour) Up a fair bit from last reading....so up again..

Nitrite : 0- 0.25 <Pale lavender almost the light blue...Up a tad..

PH: 7.6

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like it, just keep going until you are consistently getting the sky blue nitrite test after 12 hrs